Odds & Ends

The African nation of Swaziland is allegedly getting tough on witches, banning them from flying at an altitude above 150 meters (about 500 feet). Anyone caught operating a broomstick above the legal limit could face arrest and a fine of R500,000 ($53,100). “A witch on a broomstick should not fly above the limit,” Civil Aviation Authority marketing and corporate affairs director Sabelo Dlamini was quoted as saying to the The Star newspaper. It’s difficult to say how tongue-in-cheek the newly drafted law really is. But black magic is taken seriously in Swaziland. Last year a leading Swazi MP called for a hike in the taxes paid by witch doctors to help ease the country’s financial crisis.

Dateline: Russia

On the negative side, the Russian town of Vidyayevo will be without hot water during the summer months due to local fuel debts from the winter months. On the plus side: Free waterslides for everybody! According to a report in The Moscow Times, Mayor Sergei Dubovoi told Murmansk Gov. Marina Kovtun that the 5,771 residents of Vidyayevo would have to do without hot water this summer. By way of compensation, though, all residents will be allowed to visit the local Fregat Water Park for free. “You have a great water park,” Kovtun reportedly said, “Many Murmansk residents envy you.” The Fregat Water Park website boasts two waterslides and an “American pool.” Normally the park charges 200 rubles ($6) per hour.

Dateline: Wisconsin

A man called police in the town of Baraboo to complain about all the noise his neighbors were making. His neighbors? A bunch of fornicating frogs. According to Baraboo’s News Republic, this latest incident marked the second time this month someone has called police to complain about “loud music” coming from the home of Debbie and Jeff Alsip. Responding officers found the actual partiers to be a group of amorous amphibians in the Alsip’s koi pond. “Every spring, this happens,” Debbie Alsip told the newspaper. “It has woke us up before, if we have our windows open.” When officer Mike Pichler arrived at the Alsip home on Sunday, May 12, he found about a dozen frogs gathered at the backyard pond. He reportedly witnessed a couple of them “develop large bulges in their throats as they croaked to one another” and spotted one pair engaged in an act of sexual congress. “You don’t see that many frogs at one time unless they’re mating,” said Alsip. The officer told the neighbor that the disturbance was frog-related, but the neighbor felt that the Alsips should evict the amphibian fornicators. “I don’t know how I’m encouraging them,” said Alsip, regarding her neighbor’s complaints. “If he thinks I’m going to catch them and take them out, he’s crazy.” Neither the homeowners nor the frogs were cited.

Dateline: North Carolina

A family of four was spotted walking naked down Providence Road in Charlotte, reportedly causing traffic delays on the afternoon of Saturday, May 11. “Like freshly-born baby naked,” Charlotte-Mecklenburg police Capt. Rod Farley told the Charlotte Observer. “This was Adam and Eve stuff, not even a loincloth.” When police stopped the 40-year-old mother, her twentysomething daughter, a toddler and a newborn baby, the women said, “the Lord told them to get naked and walk down the street.” Police transported all four to Presbyterian Matthews Hospital where the adults were physically and mentally evaluated. “It didn’t appear that they had any problems short of that they didn’t have any clothes on,” Farley said. A report of child neglect was filed and the Department of Social Services was contacted, but it is not clear whether additional charges would be filed.